15 
BRITISH GUNNERS AT THE SIEGE AND BATTLE 
OE NARVA IN 1700. 
BY 
CHARLES DALTON, ESQ. 
(Editor of cc English Army Lists and Commission Registers , 1661-1714.”,) 
WHEN Peter the Great elected to take up his residence at Deptford 
in February 1698, with a view to learning the art of: shipbuilding, 
Sayes Court, which belonged to John Evelyn, was taken for the Tsar by 
William III. in consequence of its vicinity to the Royal dock-yard. It 
was at this house, which was newly furnished by the King, that Peter, 
who infinately preferred the aristocracy of talent to the aristocracy of 
birth, entertained all sorts and conditions of men. “ There is a house 
full of people and right nasty,” wrote Evelyn's servant to his honoured 
master soon after the Tsar’s arrival at Sayes Court. 1 2 But Peter had 
not come to England solely to learn ship-building. He was bent on 
impressing teachers of mathematics, experienced artillerists, engineers, 
ship-wrights and skilled artificers for service in Russia. The peace of 
Ryswick, with its all round reductions, having thrown many out of 
active employment, Peter and his agents found little difficulty in getting 
hold of the kind of men they required. Deptford supplied some ex¬ 
perienced hands and Woolwich Arsenal, (which the Tsar visited), provi¬ 
ded others. After visiting Portsmouth we are told that Peter signed 
contracts with about sixty men, many of whom had been recommended 
by Lord Caermarthen. 3 
The chief of these was Major Leonard van der Stamm who, though a 
Dutchman by birth, had served with the British Artillery Train during 
the Irish campaign of 1691, and at the battle of Landen in 1693 where 
he commanded a company of artillery. From 1693 to 1697 he had 
served uninterruptedly in Flanders. The transfer of this able and 
gallant officer to the Russian Service was an undoubted loss to the 
British Artillery but, curious to say, it was not his knowledge of gun¬ 
nery which procured him a high post in Russia, but on account of his 
being a “ specialist in ship designing.” 3 The Tsar also engaged the 
services of several experienced gunners who were sent to Russia in the 
spring of 1698. * The names of four of these artillerymen have been 
handed down to us and their names and services deserve to beperpetu- 
1 Evelyn’s Diary , Vol. II, p. 349. 
2 Schuyler’s Deter the G-reat, Vol. I, p. 368. 
3 Schuyler’s Deter the Great , Vol. I, p. 388. 
1. VOL. XXV. 
